Leonard says returning to the court is the easy part after making season debut for Clippers

INGLEWOOD, Calif. — After what Kawhi Leonard has gone through the past nine months, returning to the court for the Los Angeles Clippers was the easy part.

Leonard played 19 minutes and scored 12 points in his season debut Saturday night to help the Clippers beat the Atlanta Hawks 131-105.

The six-time All-Star forward missed the Clippers' first 34 games with what the team described as right knee injury recovery. It was his first NBA game action since Game 3 of the Clippers' Western Conference first-round playoff series against Dallas on April 26.

''We did the right steps to get me to this point,'' Leonard said. "Playing basketball was the easy part of it. This is what I love to do. The hard part is not playing and having the rehab and not competing with my teammates.

Leonard was in the starting lineup and got a giant round of applause from the crowd at the Intuit Dome when he was introduced. He hit a 3-pointer on his first shot from the left wing with 9:57 remaining in the first quarter to tie it at 5-all.

Leonard was 4 of 11 from the floor, including three 3-pointers, along with three rebounds and one assist.

Both Leonard and coach Tyronn Lue stressed taking it slow as Leonard gets into playing shape.

''I took the shots that I got. Anybody watching that wants me to score 20 or 30 points and be aggressive, we are not on no one's timeframe," Leonard said. "We know what's ahead of us and we have to keep building in the right direction. We were facing it like a preseason game tonight and we'll keep moving the same way until I'm able to build up my minutes.''

Lue, who did not say how long Leonard would be on a minutes restriction, thought Leonard's first game back went well and that having him on the floor made things easier for everyone else.

''Just want him to ease into it. Didn't want to force feed him. I thought our guys did a good job of not just sitting around watching him play and just continue to play the game,'' Lue said. "It was good to have him, now we just have to continue to keep building off of it.''

Leonard has missed 290 regular-season games over the last eight years, including all of the 2021-22 season with knee trouble after being injured in the 2021 Western Conference semifinals against Utah.

If Saturday's game was any indication, a full-strength Clippers squad could surprise some people in the Western Conference. LA broke things open in the second quarter and at one point led by 27 points.

''With Kawhi on the floor, he can draw so much attention, double team and things like that. I'm able to finally get some catch-and-shoot 3s, play off rotation, being able to attack the basket, so it's a lot easier," said guard Norman Powell, who had 20 points.

''And just defensively, where we've been playing and our defensive identity this year even before Kawhi came out today, I think it fits him perfectly and makes it hard for teams because we got so many guys that can switch and guard and defend one-on-one and now you got the help side, so I'm really excited. First game, he looked really good, so just continue to build on that.''

The Clippers are 20-15 record and in seventh place in the Western Conference. However, only 2 1/2 games separate the second- to seventh-place teams. After Paul George signed with Philadelphia and Leonard missing the first part of the season, the Clippers weren't expected to be five games over .500 at this point.

Lue stressed though that there is still a lot of the regular season left to play.

''A lot of room for improvement. We can get better,'' he said. "Our guys have done a great job. James (Harden), Norm and Zu (Ivica Zubac) have really done a good job at just showing their veteran leadership but also carrying this team. Now we just got to be ready to build off of this. We've done a good job at holding it down until Kawhi got back, but now we got to continue to take those next steps to be a great team.''

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